What is UbD?
Understanding by Design (UbD) is a framework for improving student achievement. Emphasizing the teacher's critical role as a designer of student learning, UbD works within the standards-driven curriculum to help teachers clarify learning goals, devise revealing assessments of student understanding, and craft effective and engaging learning activities. Developed by nationally recognized educators Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe, and published by the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD), Understanding by Design is based on the following key ideas:
A primary goal of education should be the development and deepening of student understanding.
Students reveal their understanding most effectively when they are provided with complex, authentic opportunities to explain, interpret, apply, shift perspective, empathize, and self-assess. When applied to complex tasks, these "six facets" provide a conceptual lens through which teachers can better assess student understanding.
Effective curriculum development reflects a three-stage design process called "backward design" that delays the planning of classroom activities until goals have been clarified and assessments designed. This process helps to avoid the twin problems of "textbook coverage" and "activity-oriented" teaching, in which no clear priorities and purposes are apparent.
Student and school performance gains are achieved through regular reviews of results (achievement data and student work) followed by targeted adjustments to curriculum and instruction. Teachers become most effective when they seek feedback from students and their peers and use that feedback to adjust approaches to design and teaching.
Teachers, schools, and districts benefit by "working smarter" through the collaborative design, sharing, and peer review of units of study.
In practice, Understanding by Design offers:
a three-stage "backward planning" curriculum design process anchored by a unit design template
a set of design standards with attendant rubrics
and a comprehensive training package to help teachers design, edit, critique, peer- review, share, and improve their lessons and assessments.
I. The Essential Questions Remember that good essential questions have some basic criteria in common: · They center on major issues, problems, concerns, interests, or themes. · They are open-ended and resist a simple or single right answer. · They are deliberately thought-provoking, sometimes controversial, and are usually higher order type questions. · They require students to draw upon content knowledge and personal experience. · They can be revisited throughout a unit, or beyond, to engage students in evolving dialogue or debate. · They lead to other essential questions · They are NOT just a rewrite of a teaching objective. · While content often repeats, essential questions show the difference in the approach.
Discuss the essential questions in terms of the following:
Do the questions highlight key concepts?
Do the questions relate to the skills?
Do the questions have a logical sequence?
Are the questions framed to engage the learners?
Are the questions open-ended?
Are the questions realistic for the time frame and level?
Are there an appropriatenumber of questions (not too few/too many)?
Are the questions non-repetitious?
II. Skills
Look over the Skills portion of the maps in respect to these points:
Are the skills written as action verbs
Do the skills link to the essential questions?
Does the level of the skill match the level of study?
Are cross-curricular skills, or skills relating to the ESLRs also mentioned at some point?
III. Assessment
Evaluate the Assessment portion of the map according to the following:
Have enough details been given about the type of assessment?
Do the assessments show evidence of precise skills?
Do the assessments reflect the essential questions?
Are the assessments appropriate to the level?
Do the assessments (overall) provide evidence of growth or regression over time?
Questions to which your answers were “No” show areas that need revision ???????? Information adapted from Mapping the Big Picture training materials by Heide Hayes-Jacobs
Curriculum Design using Understanding (UbD) by Design Framework
Table of Contents
Understanding by Design (UbD) is a framework for improving student achievement. Emphasizing the teacher's critical role as a designer of student learning, UbD works within the standards-driven curriculum to help teachers clarify learning goals, devise revealing assessments of student understanding, and craft effective and engaging learning activities.
Developed by nationally recognized educators Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe, and published by the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD), Understanding by Design is based on the following key ideas:
- A primary goal of education should be the development and deepening of student understanding.
- Students reveal their understanding most effectively when they are provided with complex, authentic opportunities to explain, interpret, apply, shift perspective, empathize, and self-assess. When applied to complex tasks, these "six facets" provide a conceptual lens through which teachers can better assess student understanding.
- Effective curriculum development reflects a three-stage design process called "backward design" that delays the planning of classroom activities until goals have been clarified and assessments designed. This process helps to avoid the twin problems of "textbook coverage" and "activity-oriented" teaching, in which no clear priorities and purposes are apparent.
- Student and school performance gains are achieved through regular reviews of results (achievement data and student work) followed by targeted adjustments to curriculum and instruction. Teachers become most effective when they seek feedback from students and their peers and use that feedback to adjust approaches to design and teaching.
- Teachers, schools, and districts benefit by "working smarter" through the collaborative design, sharing, and peer review of units of study.
In practice, Understanding by Design offers:- a three-stage "backward planning" curriculum design process anchored by a unit design template
- a set of design standards with attendant rubrics
- and a comprehensive training package to help teachers design, edit, critique, peer- review, share, and improve their lessons and assessments.
(From http://www.authenticeducation.org/ubd/ubd.lasso)Creating a Lesson based on UbD.pdf
UbD template.doc
Resources:
Pearson and UbD
UbD on EduTech
UbD Exchange
PBS Integrated Teaching Units (K-2)
Reading and Language ArtsSocial Studies
Science and technology
Math
Curriculum Map Review Guidelines
I. The Essential QuestionsRemember that good essential questions have some basic criteria in common:
· They center on major issues, problems, concerns, interests, or themes.
· They are open-ended and resist a simple or single right answer.
· They are deliberately thought-provoking, sometimes controversial, and are usually higher order type questions.
· They require students to draw upon content knowledge and personal experience.
· They can be revisited throughout a unit, or beyond, to engage students in evolving dialogue or debate.
· They lead to other essential questions
· They are NOT just a rewrite of a teaching objective.
· While content often repeats, essential questions show the difference in the approach.
Discuss the essential questions in terms of the following:
- Do the questions highlight key concepts?
- Do the questions relate to the skills?
- Do the questions have a logical sequence?
- Are the questions framed to engage the learners?
- Are the questions open-ended?
- Are the questions realistic for the time frame and level?
- Are there an appropriate number of questions (not too few/too many)?
- Are the questions non-repetitious?
II. SkillsLook over the Skills portion of the maps in respect to these points:
- Are the skills written as action verbs
- Do the skills link to the essential questions?
- Does the level of the skill match the level of study?
- Are cross-curricular skills, or skills relating to the ESLRs also mentioned at some point?
III. AssessmentEvaluate the Assessment portion of the map according to the following:
Questions to which your answers were “No” show areas that need revision
????????
Information adapted from Mapping the Big Picture training materials by Heide Hayes-Jacobs